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Hello and welcome to Best Of Maclean’s.
“People must be able to speak freely, without fear”
Yihan is a 23-year-old receptionist who grew up in China, first under Hu Jintao and then Xi Jinping. To protect her and her family, we’ve agreed not to reveal her surname.
I was a child living in Beijing when my dad told me that when he was young, he’d protested at Tiananmen Square in 1989. He was arrested during the demonstrations, and at just 24 years old, he spent six months in jail. He wasn’t given enough to eat and wasn’t allowed to shower. He was bound so tightly that he wondered if the open wounds on his hands would even heal.
He wasn’t the only one: for several months, thousands of students protested in Beijing against the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, calling for democracy, freedom of speech and a free press. On June 4, 1989, the government sent in troops, who opened fire at students. It’s estimated that hundreds to thousands were killed and almost 10,000 were arrested. I didn’t really hear much else about Tiananmen Square growing up. My dad doesn’t talk about it—aside from snippets here and there, he’s never told me exactly what he witnessed or went through.
Soon after my dad was released, he met my mom in Beijing. I was born several years later in the northwestern province of Gansu, and after my parents had my little sister, they settled down in Beijing. We had a comfortable childhood, with my dad working in media and my mom staying home to take care of us.
From discussions I heard as a child, I could tell my parents were pessimistic about China’s future. Many people in China are secretly critical of the government but they fear getting a call from police, being fined or going to jail, so they censor themselves. Chinese people are good at ignoring what the government is doing, but it doesn’t mean they agree with Xi’s actions, including mass surveillance, online censorship and arresting and profiling dissidents...
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